by Danielle Lori
Rating: ⭐3.5/5⭐
She’s a romantic at heart, living in the most unromantic of worlds…
Nicknamed Sweet Abelli for her docile nature, Elena smiles on cue and has a charming response for everything. She’s the favored daughter, the perfect mafia principessa… or was.
Now, all she can see in the mirror’s reflection is blood staining her hands like crimson paint.
They say first impressions are everything…
In the murky waters of New York’s underworld, Elena’s sister is arranged to marry Nicolas Russo. A Made Man, a boss, a cheat—even measured against mafia standards. His reputation stretches far and wide and is darker than his black suits and ties. After his and Elena’s first encounter ends with an accidental glare on her part, she realizes he’s just as rude as he is handsome.
She doesn’t like the man or anything he stands for, though that doesn’t stop her heart from pattering like rain against glass when he’s near, nor the shiver that ghosts down her spine at the sound of his voice.
And he’s always near. Telling her what to do. Making her feel hotter than any future brother-in-law should. Elena may be the Sweet Abelli on the outside, but she’s beginning to learn she has a taste for the darkness, for rough hands, cigarettes, and whiskey-colored eyes. Having already escaped one scandal, however, she can hardly afford to be swept up in another.
Besides, even if he were hers, everyone knows you don’t fall in love with a Made Man… right?
Review
I think I may have finally figured out what my hang up with mafia books is: the mafia setting is basically just a free pass to have men act like psychos and low key perpetuate misogynistic stereotypes and it not be an automatic red flag. Like, “He’s a mafia boss, so of course he’s a little psychotic, prone to irrationally violent and possessive behavior and unfazed in the face of brutality. What did you expect?”
In a way it’s lazy writing. Authors want to write dark romance and not have people come at them for how absolutely toxic and frankly problematic their male characters are, so they slap the “mafia” label on them and are done with it.
Why can’t we have dons that live by a certain honor code and are perhaps noble in their own unique, context appropriate ways? Why can’t we have a don that absolutely refuses to have anything to do with drugs or allow anyone to deal them in his territory because his beloved mother died of an overdose?
And to be honest, it’s not like the mafia aspect even played a big role in the book. The events and characters of The Sweetest Oblivion could have been transported to a historical or fantasy setting, with royal houses engaged in a struggle for power, and it would have been pretty much the same exact story, since stripped to its bones, this was a forbidden frowned upon love story with the barest hint of enemies to lovers thrown in.
Nicolas was hot, so was Elena, and they were hot for each other pretty much right off the bat. And, as I just mentioned, it wasn’t like we even got enemies to lovers, more like he was prone to violence, spoilt (in the sense that he was used to always getting what he wanted) and kind of a dick, so unavoidably they clashed, because it wasn’t like she was gonna let him walk all over her, Sweet Abelli or not.
I’ll admit, the chemistry between them—how hot and bothered they felt around each other—was described a lot so plenty of sexual tension was created, which got magnified and boosted by the fact they were meant to be in-laws, so it’s not like they could easily give into their urges. At the same time, Nicolas’ engagement to Elena’s younger sister was purely, 100% an arrangement, so it’s not like the sister would have been upset—or even cared the slightest bit, really—if she happened to find out her sister and fiance had the hots for each other.
Overall, it was an entertaining book, but fairly straight forward.
I wish it would have delved deeper into some things. Like, the book opened with Elena being absolutely guilt-ridden over her part in the death of some guy she’d been involved with that’d happened six months prior, after she’d run away from home. What made Elena run away in the first place? She felt suffocated by her family and their expectations of her? Ok, but how? Why? And why was her father was so completely against giving her away to Nicolas in the first place? Why did he—and apparently the rest of Elena’s family—care so much more about her than either of her two other siblings? Those two particular factors were pivotal to the story, and yet they were barely expanded upon, and I feel that was a big wasted opportunity to give the plot more depth.
Still, I liked the incorporation of Italian, and was glad to see it was actually fairly accurate (there were a couple errors, but it was overall good). Nonna was hilarious and for sure reminded me of my own nonna, and the HEA was cute, if a little bland.
I think, perhaps, the next book in the series will be a little less formulaic, since the main characters—Gianna and Christopher—seemed to have more nuance and depth to them compared to Nico and Elena. I have a good feeling about it.
What should I read next?
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